Nature's Innocence
by make a quick exit
Summary: An extraordinary demigod has penetrated Camp Half-Blood's magical borders by accident, and with her come traditions lost since ancient times. Suddenly this demigod appears before Nico di Angelo, singing an ancient verse that may mean the end of Olympus.
1. Chapter 1

**_Nature's Innocence_**

"Hah! I've bested you again, Dionysus!" Chiron slapped his cards on the table in front of the man across from him. He leaned back against his wheelchair smugly.

The bad-tempered wine god scowled as he took in Chiron's cards. "Mount Olympus," he grumbled. "How in the name of myself is that possible?"

"Dionysus, I've been teaching princes for thousands of years!" said Chiron, grinning. "I've lived longer than even you."

"Don't go there." Dionysus' scowl deepened, and he shoved his chair away from the table so that he could stomp off the Big House's porch.

"Touchy about his age, isn't he?" Chiron mused aloud to no one but the breeze. He turned his wheelchair to the splendid sunset before him, his eyes half-closed pleasently. He watched the campers on their winged Pegasi dart through the clouds, crying gleefully to each other. Chiron was glad that the gods had rehired him as the camp's activities director.

As Chiron was about to slip into a doze, Charles Beckendorf of the Hephaestus cabin strode up with a small boy tucked safely underneath his strong arm.

"Chiron," the young smith called. "We've got a new camper!"

Chiron straightened, pulling himself out of his wheelchair and false legs. He watched carefully as the boy's eyes lit up in fear and shock.

"W-What are you?!" he cried, hiding behind Beckendorf's back.

"So now that I've told you I'm your big brother you're gonna be doin' that?" laughed Beckendorf. He gently pried the child's hands away from him and pushed him towards the porch.

Chiron grinned and swept his arms about him, gesturing to the forest and cabins and meadows and yards before them.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, young demigod!"

After some gentle coaxing and Chiron putting his legs back on, the child followed him cautiously into the Big House and they sat down in front of the fire. The little boy seemed to relax a bit beside the fire. Chiron smiled softly.

"I suppose you're finding all this hard to take in?" he asked.

The child nodded vigorously, but he seemed to be quivering.

Chiron nodded, too, slow and understanding. "Yes," he said. "That mostly happens to new campers such as yourself. Growing up in the mortal world, and all of a sudden being told you're half Greek god and all the myths and tales are matter-of-factly real." Chiron jumped suddenly. So did the little boy. "Oh! I apologize. My name is Chiron, and I am Camp Half-Blood's activities director."

"I'm Link Demerri." Link's voice was small. "My dad's Heffastes."

"Hephaestus." Chiron chuckled.

"He-ph-ae-stus."

Chiron smiled, and continued, "Yes. Your father and his family are the mighty gods who reside at Mount Olympus, which happens to reside above the Empire State building. Or, at least, for now it does. Notable monuments from the ancient times tend to change with the times; stay modern, I suppose. Hephaestus is the god of smiths and fire, if you didn't know that already, Link. He's a very peacable god, which is more than I can say for the others. Reserved and quiet and tough-looking, but all-around a man you'd want to be on good terms with." Chiron paused. "Do you have any questions, Link?" He stared at him.

In response, Link yawned, stretching his arms and legs. Chiron gently helped the boy to his feet and carried him via horseback to the Hephaestus cabin. Chiron decided that that was all Link's brain could process for today.

As night descended upon Camp Half-Blood, a commotion aroused. The children of the war god Ares were immediately sought out, because whomever was attacking the Camp was strong enough to match the dragon guard. The Hermes cabin was emptied out, too, for their swift agility and pure cunning minds would do good for a skirmish. Chiron awoke, of course, and he decided he'd watch from a distance. A border fight would be a good chance to gauge his pupils' reactions in a real battle.

But as Chiron galloped behind the excited campers, he stopped suddenly, and he looked like he had tripped. The thing was, Chiron never tripped. He was too noble to just randomly trip on something. But no one took any notice; the rush of battle was fueling their minds. Chiron balanced himself quickly. He looked about wildly, his chocolate-brown eyes bright in panic. He pawed the ground with a front hoof.

"No...It can't be...The satyrs...they can not know about this...Can it be let into camp?" he muttered, staring at the pine tree that marked Camp Half-Blood's magical borders.

Suddenly, an animal's roar ripped through the velvet quiet of the night. Chiron jumped.

"I guess it really is his," he whispered as he set off at a sprint.

The fight was already started, but who was being fought? Chiron couldn't see through all the writhing bodies. Then the horrible animal scream erupted again. Some campers stumbled from shock or the incredible volume. A single arrow flashed through the air, its red paint standing out against the black sky. It moved so fast that it was only visible for a moment.

The scream was cut off.

"No!" Chiron found himself pushing his way through the mass of campers. His cry was lost in howls of triumph, most of which came from the Ares kids. He reached the edge of the crowd, finally at the source of this late-night war.

Lying flat on the ground upon her back, a girl laid. The brightly-painted red arrow pinned her to the grass, clean through her torso. Chiron recoiled at the sight of all that scarlet blood gushing out of her; rivers of maroon trailed down the hill, mucking up his hooves. Her tanned face was twisted into a defiant snarl, and pointed white teeth glinted slightly in the moonlight. Her ears flicked angrily from side-to-side, tall and tufted at the end like a lynx cat's. In fact, all of her anatomy resembled a cat's. The girl's lithe and wiry build, her wild amber eyes, she even had a tail! But, then again, her whole waist down was pure feline. Paws, claws, fur.

Chiron stared in total bewilderment. His mind whirled with mixtures of disbelief, joy, even fear. The question burned clear as day in his mind, but he dare not speak it, afraid that nymphs might hear. She confirmed his theory anyway.

_"Let me go!" _Her voice came as a true feral snarl. _"I am the daughter of Pan!"_


	2. Chapter 2

**_Nature's Innocence_**

Chiron quickly decided that it would be better to leave the campers to their victory than have crazed nymphs and satyrs running about to start another battle. So, suffocating his queasiness, he tenderly picked the girl up by an arm and hefted her onto his back. He winced at the squelching sound her stomach made as the arrow slipped off. But the girl didn't seem to notice. Instead, she had begun spitting and hissing and yowling for her release as Chiron galloped away. For some reason, the fight had started up again.

"Leave me be!" the girl screamed in the centuar's ear. "They shall kill him if you don't let me go!"

"I'm taking you back to the Big House so we can heal you!" Chiron insisted calmly. "And kill who? There was no one with you."

"Just turn around!"

"Why--"

_"Go back!"_

When Chiron just kept running, she decided she'd have to take matters into her own account. She leapt off the centuar's back, but stumbled in her landing with a grunt. Blood soaked her blue shirt and the hand she clutched to her side. Needless, she sprang away down the hill on light feet and dove once again into the fray. She immediately engaged with a bulky Ares kid, but quickly slashed him across the face. He stumbled away with a scream, leaving the girl to claw her way to the center.

There she found what she was looking for: a young, silver-and-gold cub battling with a group of Hermes archers. With a desperate screech, she managed to distract them and lunge forward for the cub. As she fled from the archers' arrows raining down, Chiron cantered tensely up. He slung her onto his back again. Her wound was bleeding nonstop now, and she looked extremely pale and sick. Chiron galloped at topspeed back to the Big House as she slumped forward unconscious. The lion cub kept her upright by prompting her with his shoulder. It growled nervously over her as its clear blue eyes followed the trails of blood.

Dionysus was the one to meet them at the door. Chiron didn't even have to say anything for the wine god to understand who this girl was, because he had probably already heard. The centuar trotted into the Big House's living room.

"She's unconscious. Fetch the nectar," panted Chiron, setting the girl down on the couch. The lion cub leapt off his back and began grooming her hair.

Normally, Dionysus would have pointed out rather angrily that he was one of the great gods of Olympus, but this matter was important.

"No, not nectar," he said as he disappeared out the door. "She needs clear spring water." There was the sound of whispering grass as a nymph ran off. A few minutes later, Dionysus walked in again with a clay jug of water in his hands. He handed it to Chiron, who tentatively poured a handful of it into her gasping mouth.

Almost immediately, her eyelids blinked open. Amber eyes with narrow pupils glinted in a panick for a moment, then turned dark in a glare. She laid a hand protectively on the lion cub's neck.

"You took me into your camp." It was a flat statement that came in a dangerous whisper. "Fool...I told you who my father was. You know my anatomy. You've seen my lion. What is the purpose of bringing a dangerous creature such as me into your safety?"

Chiron smiled gently, giving a mental relieved sigh. "Camp Half-Blood is open to all demigods, just like you. Once you have gone through the invisible borders, you are under my charge."

"Not much of a reason."

The lion growled in agreement.

Dionysus, who had been leaning silently against the wall before, suddenly stepped in. "We need to know your name, you know," he pointed out loudly.

The girl's eyes narrowed at the wine god and her lip curled disgustedly. "That is not for any god to ask directly, Dionysus," she hissed. "I leave in the morning, Chiron," she added, turning to the centuar.

"Of course not!" he replied, lifting her shirt and beginning to cover her wound with gauze. "This wound will keep you here for months. Your internals will have to heal and your skin, too. There's absolutely no way you could be up and walking by tomorrow morning."

"What do you mean 'not for any god to ask directly'?" Dionysus fumed. "What is your name?"

"You really think I would say after you _demand _it from me like a spoiled child?" she sneered with a snarl.

"Um..." Chiron was growing nervous now. The crabby wine god was purely enraged now; even from where he stood, Chiron could plainly see the purple vein threatening to pop. "Please, what is your name, demigod?" he asked softly as he dabbed gauze onto her wound.

She flinched at his touch, but seemed calmed by his gentle manner. She answered through gritted teeth:

"I am Nyx."

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End file.
